Federal, state, local officials discuss Homeland Security

State and local officials met in Des Moines today (Wednesday) for a forum with Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell to discuss homeland security. The Des Moines Democrat says there’s nothing new from Washington to report on the issue — but the effort continues to keep information flowing from the top to the bottom. He says if the chief of police doesn’t have information, if the fire chief and medical personnel don’t have information, then it’s not where it needs to be. The latest warnings about potential trouble have thus far not resulted in any trouble. Boswell though says federal officials are still in a “Danged if you do, danged if you don’t” position.He says if they hear information and there’s “traffic” on the intelligence side, it can cause us to take action that’s costly, but he says they’d be very much in error if they didn’t respond and something happened. Boswell says the effort of the government to keep people informed can actually be used by terrorist to cause trouble. He says one of the ways “they can be very ornery to us is talk about doing something, but not really intend to.” Boswell says sorting out the real from the fake talk and threats is the big challenge. Immigration and the way we defend our borders is a big part of homeland security. Boswell says he hasn’t seen enough of President Bush’s latest immigration plan to know how it will impact the economy or national security. Boswell says there’s merit to parts of it and he says he needs to see what the president means by parts of it. Boswell says it is appropriate to address the issue. The state homeland security advisor attended the forum along with other state and local officials.